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A massive and controversial housing package moving through Congress passed a final procedural hurdle Thursday, with the Senate voting 84-12 to invoke cloture on the last portion of the bill; the package (HR 3221) appears set to pass a final Senate vote Friday, although a final bill will require negotiation between House and Senate leaders. President Bush has also threatened to veto the bill in its current form, as well.

A sweeping mortgage reform and housing aid package stalled in the Senate was able to only inch forward late Monday, with members of the Senate voting 76-10 late in the evening to take the next procedural step needed to move the bill forward.

A housing bill frozen in the Senate is "running out of time," White House spokesperson Tony Fratto said in a press conference Tuesday. Softening the administration's stance on proposed housing relief legislation set to be at the top of Congress' list after the July 4 break, Fratto said that President Bush wants to see a housing bill "as soon as possible."
"The Senate put off a lot of work," he said. "They've been in session for a long time and some very critical pieces of legislation got put off for yet another recess, and now this last session is getting pretty close to the August recess."

A lone Senator apparently now stands between a $300 billion expansion of the Federal Housing Administration's mortgage insurance program, and a growing number of Republican and Democratic Senators who want to push their version of a housing relief package through the Senate floor as fast as possible.

This month inHousingWire magazine

President Donald Trump appointed Calabria to take the helm of the FHFA on December 12, 2018. The Senate then officially confirmed Calabria in April by a vote of 52 to 44 as head of the agency. Since then, Calabria has not been silent on his plan to reform the FHFA and the entities it oversees – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.